Alvin
Science
Ever since I was young, I have wanted to understand the mechanisms life: how life works. I have, thus, long been fascinated with the field of biology. To study the mechanisms of life, however, requires not only the methods by which different biological processes are studied. It also requires mathematical, computational, and engineering approaches. I am especially interested in studying the mechanisms of human life. To do this, I know that I will need to learn a lot about many different fields. One particular question that interests me is how do organisms respond to external stimuli?
Over the past three years, my experience of the COVID-19 pandemic inspired me to research how people respond to viruses. This question has two parts: how viruses transmit through the air and how people react to viral infections. From 2020, I began investigating the first part by modeling the trajectory of viruses traveling in both the air and in the respiratory airways of humans. I hope in future to study the process of viral invasion and the effects of viruses on human bodies.
In the future, with broader views and larger ambitions that I have gained, it is possible for me to chase and pursue grander achievements. For example, it is important and interesting, for me, to learn about whether the artificial intelligence in the future should have biological characteristics and act as living organisms, as well as plausible methods achieving these goals. Moreover, humanity studies can also be included into these fields, for example, the behavioral studies of mankind (anthropology and psychology) can be applied to understand human habits. My ultimate goal is to understand what how humans differ from other organisms. I am especially interested in understanding how human intelligence evolved, “the origin of the creation of ‘civilization’ for mankind”, and “evolutionary optimizations that enables human beings occupying the dominant status in the ecosystem of Earth”.
My Research
1. Safe Distance
I tried hard to do scientific research and paper writing while I was in high school.
My paper "Safe Distance: Quantitative Analysis on the Distance A Covid-19 Virus Spreads During Its Lifespan" was accepted by MISBP 2021 (2021 International Conference on Medical Imaging, Sanitation and Biological Pharmacy).
In this work, Einstein's equation for diffusivity of a particle and the wide of the Gaussian distribution of the particles in Brownian movement are used in the calculation of the range a virus-containing muco-salivary droplet can reach. From this, I analyzed the safe distance that can prevent droplets containing COVID-19 virus particles from entering lungs.
I shared this work in ISEF2021 (Intel International Science and Engineering Fair).
My slides at ISEF 2021.
After this, I delved deeper into the analysis of viral transmission models. I combined two different methods to make a general analysis of the distance of transmission of all types of viruses.
My second paper "Safe Distance of Virus Quantitative Analysis and Simulation of the Trajectory of Pathogen-Containing Droplets in the Air Respiratory Airways" was published in a special issue of "Applied Bionics and Biomechanics".
You can get more information about it at https://www.hindawi.com/journals/abb/2022/4218342/.
Also, I used this project to participate in ISEF2022.
My slides at ISEF 2022.
My poster at ISEF 2022.
2. Computer Generate Music
I am very willing to investigate scientific questions from my hobby. Besides biology, music is also an interest of mine. I have studied to compose music and I think it is valuable to automate it by machine. I am currently working on this area.
I am learning about adversarial generative networks and learning the principles of MuseGAN. My goal is to design an innovative adversarial generative network with the ability to compose for multiple instruments.
My research progress of computer generating music.
I also reported my research progress at a symposium held by the school.
